This application corresponds to French application 97 11676 of Sep. 19, 1997, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a fork lift truck adapted to be loaded on the rear of a carrying vehicle, of the type comprising a chassis having at least one motor driven and steering rear wheel and two fixed direction front wheels.
Fork lift trucks adapted to be loaded on the rear of a carrying vehicle necessarily comprise a double acting mast, to be able to raise the chassis of the truck to its loaded position.
Moreover, to permit the orientation of the forks and the loading, the trucks adapted to be loaded comprise at least one steering wheel and have a reduced empty weight and size.
The above constraints exclude the use of articulated trucks with fixed direction wheels and having a large and heavy rear chassis, of the type described in the patents GE 2,234,214 and DE 10 49 307, as trucks adapted to be loaded on the rear of a carrying vehicle.
There are known fork lift trucks with telescopic or fixed masts, adapted to be loaded on the rear of a carrying vehicle, for example a truck. These fork lift trucks of known type comprise generally a chassis having a U shape opening toward the front, provided with two front wheels and a powered and steering rear wheel. Because of the absence of a counter-weight and of the reduced length of these known fork lift trucks, the load is disposed in a transport position between the wheel arms, behind the front wheels of the truck. To be able to place or remove a load on or from the bed of a truck in the case in which the front wheels cannot pass over said bed, it is then necessary to provide supplemental devices to advance the loading forks in front of the front wheels, which introduces a cantilever and limits the load that can be raised by a loaded fork lift truck to a relatively small value.
Another drawback arises from the large spacing of the front wheels, which prevents the passage of this type of loaded fork lift truck through doors, narrow passageways or within a closed truck.
There exists accordingly a need to decrease the width of the loaded fork lift trucks to permit the passage through narrow passageways, whilst maintaining good stability, low weight so as not to reduce the carrying capacity of the carrying vehicle and a reduced size in the transport position, loaded on the rear of the truck.